Norway – escYOUnitedhttp://escunited.com
Your Favorite Eurovision CommunitySun, 18 Nov 2018 00:07:32 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8Norway in Eurovision: All songs from 1960-2018 (REACTION)http://escunited.com/norway-in-eurovision-all-songs-from-1960-2018-reaction/
Sat, 18 Aug 2018 01:25:51 +0000http://escunited.com/?p=34533Norway in the #Eurovision Song Contest is the theme of the day. Matt is reviewing all Norwegian entries and react to them accordingly. Did #Norway in Eurovision impress or disappoint? Let’s watch and find out together.

Norway has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 57 times since making its debut in 1960 and has only been absent twice since then. In 1970, the country boycotted the contest over disagreements about the voting structure, and in 2002, they were relegated. T

Norway has finished last in more Eurovision finals than any other country and for having the most “nul points”, finishing last 11 times and failing to score a point four times.

Eurovision 2018 was certainly an eventful edition of the contest for many countries involved, but for none moreso perhaps than the United Kingdom, whose participation was interrupted by a stage invader at the contest’s final.

SuRie, performing the British entry “Storm”, had the microphone snatched out of her hand by an activist with a backpack, prompting a backlash and waves of concern online from viewers across the globe.

Despite this set back, the UK finished 24th out of 26 entries, leaving the BBC with another poor showing in the competition. Many have wondered what needs to happen to get a quality song and the UK back on the left-hand side of the scoreboard – enter JOWST!

The Norwegian producer and DJ who represented Norway last year with Aleksander Walmann has offered his services to the BBC next year via Twitter to produce an entry, provided he could find a suitable British performer to sing it.

Many have provided suggestions in the responses, including SuRie herself, Paloma Faith, James Bljnt (who have both allegedly been interested in entering) and AlunaGeorge.

JOWST finished 10th in Kyiv with “Grab the Moment” and earlier this year he released a collaboration with the Bulgaria runner up of 2017, Kristian Kostov.

What do #YOU think of JOWST’s offer? Discuss this news in our new 2019 forum right HERE or join the discussion below and on social media!

We are live from Lisbon for the third day of rehearsals and it was the turn of the second semi-finalists to take to the Altice Arena stage. Norway’s returning champion Alexander Rybak kicked off the day, with other performance from Romania, Serbia and San Marino. But how did they get on today? Read on for our reviews!

If #YOU need a more in-depth analysis of the rehearsals, make sure to like and subscribe to us on YouTube HERE to be notified when we begin our live streams!

NORWAY – Alexander Rybak – That’s How You Write a Song

If you saw the performance from Melodi Grand Prix then there will be nothing to surprise you here, but Rybak still has his natural stage charisma which I’m sure will charm the audience onto his side. The stage is lit in flashing pink and blue hues. On his second run there are some in-ear and camerawork problems but on the whole the performance is a strong one once the crew iron out the kinks. Some additional heart graphics appear on stage during the bridge of the song and the final run sees the addition of sporadic fireworks and sparks at the song’s key moments. I feel like some of the intimate feel of the national final has been lost on the big Lisbon stage however.

ROMANIA – The Humans – Goodbye

Romania’s The Humans are channelling their inner DJ Bobo with their anthemic performance! Vocalist Christina Caramarcu wears a purple dress and has a flawless vocal performance, lifting this song to the stadium rock levels it needs. The guitarists Alexandru Cismaru and Alin Neagoe stand with their backs to the camera in the beginning with masks on the back of their heads, with dozens of mannequins wearing masks strewn across the stage. Christina then proceeds to waltz around the stage in between the rows of figures before the ‘money shot’ of a big note. The final shot showing the crowd of people on stage really works well with the performance and its message.

SERBIA – Sanja Ilic & Balkanika – Nova deca

The performance starts off with all three of the female singers standing in a row with exaggerated hand movements, ahead of a dark golden backdrop. The ladies are wearing flowing grey dresses, with the lead male singer Mladen Lukić in black alongside the rest of Balkanika. There is a lot of choreography between the three female leads and Lukić, but it doesn’t seem to have much sense or reasoning behind it. When the beat kicks in to the song the stage is awash with swathes of blue light, and the performance alternates between the two colours intermittently. It looks a little unclear at the moment so I’d have to say that the Beovizija performance was a lot more mystical and exciting to me.

SAN MARINO – Jessika ft. Jenifer B – Who We Are

How cute is this performance! San Marino once again bringing their microstate charm to the Eurovision stage with a quarter of dancing robots, including one that holds signs saying “I’m not your robot” and “Will you marry me?”. The stage is colourful in the chorus but not to an overpowering degree, and Jessika and Jenny B have a charming prescence on stage. I’m not convinced this will be in the final but it’s certainly a memorable performance!

Come back soon for reviews from our next batch of rehearsals; Denmark, Russia and Moldova!

Image credits: Andres Putting/Thomas Hanses (EBU)

What do #YOU think of the first rehearsals from day three? Share your thoughts on this year’s rehearsals with us on our forum HERE or comment below!

Ahead of our Norway reviews, we need to see what #YOU thought of Jessika and “Jenny B” with their offering for San Marino. Let’s take a look…

tuorem (Forum) – “This song makes me feel depressed actually… Every time I hear it, I feel the urge to get back to “Fandango” aka Jessika’s masterpiece. As I said before, I’m torn between the joy of Jessika eventually having her moment and the bitter taste of seeing her defend such a below-par entry. And Jenifer’s presence doesn’t help either: bring back IROL and release a hip-hop revamp. Thanx.”

Juliette (Forum) – “Awww. It feels like the song is just there because San Marino needed to come up with something. Not a bad song altogether, but nothing exceptional.”

A-lister (Forum) – “The chorus so rips of Måns Zelmerlöw’s “Heroes” it’s almost plagiarism! Anyways, it’s not SO bad actually, it’s the best thing San Marino managed to send to the contest since 2014, and that includes last year’s entry with ESC royalty Valentina. With that said it’s not really good either, but it’s better than a bunch of other entries, including entries from countries that on paper should be able to release far stronger stuff.”

Not a very positive response for San Marino and this shows in the ‘televote’ score – just 29 points for the 1in360 duo. Will this be enough to at least avoid last? We’ll see below. And now, on to a very familiar face…

24. NORWAY – Alexander Rybak – That’s How You Write a Song

10 points

Christian – “It is easy to hate this track but there is no room in my heart for that. The lyrics are silly and so is the song. Period! BUT having said that the performance here is SO full of charisma and charm and humour and personality that is simply turns a laughing joke into a serious dark horse. It started out so cringeworthy but the cheesy lyrics could easily be rewritten into: This is how you win Eurovision twice. I kid you not. Song 1 but live performance 10.”

8 points

Robert – “When this song turned up, I think it shook the ESC fandom to its core. What the heck was one of the biggest winners ever doing with this daft song?! Well, winning MGP, that’s what! I’m really chuffed that Rybak was able to come back with something like this – you cannot take ESC too seriously after all! It’s infectiously charming and Rybak’s stage presence really helps to sell it live. It’s cheesy as heck, but what’s wrong with that? I won’t pretend I’m totally in love with it, but it’s great to see something so light hearted and catchy: I’d love to see it do well over some of the more pretentious entries we have this year!”

Sean – “God damn you, Alexander. This is a massive step down from Fairytale (a long way to fall, sure). A cheesy pastiche from the disco era brought back to life with poor lyrics and an overly simplistic composition. And there’s even a bit of skat thrown in for good measure to really make the whole thing cringeworthy… but my lord if this isn’t completely over-written by being the most infuriatingly catchy song this year with a hell of a charming performance to boot. You win this round, Mr Rybak…”

7 points

Calvin – “There’s something vaudevillian and tongue-in-cheek about every aspect of the entry, especially the melody. It gives Rybak a chance to show some personality and have some fun. The problem with it is that it opens itself to accusations that the song doesn’t take itself seriously, which is odd from a figure granted such stature in the Eurovision community. However, the lack of cynicism in the entry, though extremely jarring, is a net positive overall.”

4 points

Connor – “Well, we have another Eurovision winner returning to defend the title, but this is not how you should do it. Rybak’s song is cute, and enjoyable, but it lacks any substance and that’s my issue with it. It’s a bit disappointing that this was the song he returned with, but this is his genre. I just wish it was less cheesy Taylor Swift circa 2009 music.”

Efe – “To me, as a person who loves and follows MGP every year, Rebecca was truly ROBBED this year. Rybak already had his chance…. Do you really believe that “That’s How You Write a Song” could win the whole contest this year? I don’t.”

3 points

David – “Alright, so now I know how to write a song… cool! But in reality, then I guess that I don’t. I honestly don’t know what Alexander Rybak was thinking with this song, considering that at some point I listened a lot to his songs, and he could just add some personal charm to his songs. I still believe he can, and yes, he can charm, but this song can’t. I’ll still admit, it’s one of those songs that sneaks into your head, but in some sort of way, you just want it out of your head.”

Zack – “Annoying. Absolutely annoying. This is no “Fairytale”. And it is perhaps difficult for us to score this song when this song can be seen as a cliffdive fall from grace. I find it absolutely cringey, from the instrumentation to the lyrics. But dammit, it is also quite damn catchy! Argh!”

2 points

Matt – “Let’s talk about the good stuff first: The song title is memorable and stands out. And that’s it, there is nothing else that deserves recognition. Alexander may be a charismatic performer but even he can’t save this song. It’s a parody of a parody. And no, I was not hoping for Fairytale 2.0, I was just hoping for something good.”

Stefan – “We all have love/hate feelings over Alexander and his song. Was it wrong of him to enter MGP? Yes. Was it wrong to apply with song like that one? Yes. Will he win Eurovision again? No. I would be even surprised if this qualifies for the final. I just can’t figure out what the hell happened here…”

So a love or hate song from Norway this year which earns Rybak an average score of 51 points, but how will this do with #YOU? Let’s have a look at our current standings…

Israel – Netta – Toy (157)

France – Madame Monsieur – Mercy (153)

Bulgaria – Equinox – Bones (153)

(FYR) Macedonia – Eye Cue – Lost and Found (153)

Portugal – Cláudia Pascoal – O jardim (144)

Finland – Saara Aalto – Monsters (142)

Netherlands – Waylon – Outlaw in ’em (137)

Cyprus – Eleni Foureira – Fuego (130)

Switzerland – Zibbz – Stones (129)

Hungary – AWS – Viszlát nyár (127)

Romania – The Humans – Goodbye (127)

Czech Republic – Mikolas Josef – Lie to Me (120)

Germany – Michael Schulte – You Let Me Walk Alone (120)

Azerbaijan – Aisel – X My Heart (116)

Albania – Eugent Bushpepa – Mall (115)

Croatia – Franka – Crazy (113)

Spain – Alfred & Amaia – Tu canción (112)

Serbia – Sanja Ilić & Balkanika – Nova deca (109)

Malta – Christabelle – Taboo (107)

United Kingdom – SuRie – Storm (104)

Lithuania – Ieva Zasimauskaite – When We’re Old (102)

Moldova – DoReDos – My Lucky Day (96)

San Marino – Jessika ft. Jenifer B – Who We Are (76)

Norway – Alexander Rybak – That’s How You Write a Song (51)

San Marino’s poor ‘televote’ score sees them rooted to the bottom of the songs with full points as Israel still maintain their lead on the scoreboard.

Now it’s over to #YOU – what are your thoughts on Alexander Rybak’s return to the Eurovision stage? Share your short reviews with us below, on our forum HERE or on social media @escunited and we’ll share the best tomorrow. Also, don’t forget to vote in our poll!

Tomorrow will see Belarus face the panel, so what did we make of the newly-revamped “Forever”? Not long now until we find out!

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]]>http://escunited.com/the-esc-united-expert-panel-2018-norway/feed/1Norway: Alexander Rybak Returns!http://escunited.com/norway-alexander-rybak-returns/
Sat, 10 Mar 2018 21:41:38 +0000http://escunited.com/?p=32959We are slowly getting close to the end of this year’s season of national finals, but some might say we’re saving the best until the end! Norway were one of the few ones left, and so tonight, Melodi Grand Prix 2018 took place in Oslo.

Norway has been on a roll lately, with top 10 places every year since 2013, except in 2016 when they didn’t qualify, and tonight they had the most Eurovision-ish national final this year. A number of tonight’s acts have previously won Melodi Grand Prix, which means they’ve represented Norway in the past already.

Melodi Grand Prix 2018!

10 acts performed tonight in Oslo Spektrum and the show was hosted by Kåre Magnus Bergh and Silya Nymoen.

These were the 10 acts:

Stella & Alexandra – “You Got Me”

Aleksander Walmann – “Talk To The Hand”

Ida Maria – “Scandilove”

Nicoline – “Light Me Up”

Tom Hugo – “I Like I Like I Like”

Charla K – “Stop The Music”

Alejandro Fuentes – “Tengo Otra”

Vidar Villa – “Moren Din”

Rebecca – “Who We Are”

Alexander Rybak – “That’s How You Write A Song”

As promised, it was a very Eurovision influenced final in Norway. Eurovision fans will notice that in the line-up we have Alexander Rybak who won Eurovision in 2009, with the song “Fairytale“. We also have Aleksander Walmann, who was the singer on stage for Norway in Kiev last year, performing the song “Grab The Moment” along with JOWST. There is also Stella, whose full name is Stella Mwangi, who represented Norway in 2011 with “Haba Haba“. If you thought that wasn’t enough, then we also have Kjetil Mørland, who represented Norway in 2015 with the song “A Monster Like Me“, who composed the song “Who We Are” performed by Rebecca.

Results!

Before we found our winner, we had to eliminate a few songs first, just to make it more entertaining. A combined jury and televote decided the 4 acts that would move on to the next round.

The following were the 4 Gold Finalists:

Stella & Alexandra

Rebecca

Aleksander Walmann

Alexander Rybak

After they were announced, a second round of voting commenced, but this time only the televoters got a say!

These 2 acts then moved on to the Gold Duel, and got another shot at performing their song:

Rebecca

Alexander Rybak

The votes for these 2 acts was not reset, instead they kept their votes from after the Gold Finalists were announced and people added to their totals during the Gold Duel.

Since no amount of votes were announced, then we got a simple announcement with the winner being… well you should know from the title, Alexander Rybak!

With this, Alexander Rybak will once again represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest with his song “That’s How You Write A Song“.

Do #YOU think that Alexander can win Eurovision once again, and do #YOU think that is how you actually write a song? We’d like to know as always, so remember to share your opinion – either below or on our forum HERE.

Tonight’s the night. After over two months of excitement, drama and controversy, the national final season once again draws to a close tonight for another year. However, the season ends on a bang tonight, as two Nordic powerhouses select their entries for Lisbon. The search in Norway and Sweden concludes!

Here’s all of the information #YOU need for tonight.

NORWAY – Melodi Grand Prix 2018 (19:55 CET)

Stella & Alexandra – You Got Me

Aleksander Walmann – Talk to the Hand

Ida Maria – Scandilove

Nicoline – Light Me Up

Tom Hugo – I Like I Like I Like

Charla K – Stop The Music

Alejandro Fuentes – Tengo Otra

Vidar Villa – Moren din

Rebecca – Who We Are

Alexander Rybak – That’s How You Write a Song

No less than three former Eurovision artists will attempt to make a return in Norway tonight, with Stella Mwangi, Aleksandar Walmann and the Eurovision 2009 champion Alexander Rybak all entering this year’s Melodi Grand Prix. International juries will aid Norway in their quest to achieve another solid position in Lisbon.

#YOU can see the next chapter in Norway’s Eurovision history unfold at 19:55 CET tonight on the live stream HERE or by joining in with the discussion on our forum HERE.

SWEDEN – Melodifestivalen 2018 (20:00 CET)

The most popular selection of the national final season, year on year, is Melodifestivalen, so of course the final is a major event in the Eurovision calendar. Sweden will no doubt be setting Twitter, social media and our forums alight as the twelve potential acts perform one last time.

The twelve hopefuls for the Melodifestivalen title this year are;

Méndez – Everyday

Renaida – All The Feels

Martin Almgren – A Bitter Lullaby

John Lundvik – My Turn

Jessica Andersson – Party Voice

LIAMOO – Last Breath

Samir & Viktor – Shuffla

Mariette – For You

Felix Sandman – Every Single Day

Margaret – In My Cabana

Benjamin Ingrosso – Dance You Off

Rolandz – Fuldans

As usual, a combination of the Swedish televote and the international juries decide the winner of Melodifestivalen, with the Swedes continuing to value the verdict of the Eurovision community. The song that achieves the most points will defend the Swedish flag’s honour in Lisbon as they hope to achieve another top 5.

#YOU can see all of the action from Sweden tonight from 20:00 CET HERE, and you can also join the conversation with our busy forum right HERE.

Which show will #YOU be watching tonight? Let us know on our forum or join the discussion with us on social media!

]]>Reaction Video: Norway Melodi Grand Prix 2018 Songshttp://escunited.com/reaction-video-norway-melodi-grand-prix-2018-songs/
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 07:09:20 +0000http://escunited.com/?p=31367Editor-in-Chief Matt continues the Reaction Video series, a journey through the National Final season. In an attempt to bring the readers a raw and uncensored experience, the intent is to watch and/or listen to the entries live on cam for the first time.

Norway has three victories under their belt and their most recent victory dates back to 2009. They are ready to bring back home, can this be their year? The Norwegian broadcaster recently released the ten songs that are in the running to represent their country in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

Watch Matt react to the songs and then share his personal favorites. Don’t forget to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comment section of the video, we will respond. Also, hit that Subscribe button and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

In addition, you can chat with thousands of fans from around the world on our popular Forum.

]]>Norway: Familiar Faces Return For MGP 2018http://escunited.com/norway-familiar-faces-return-for-mgp-2018/
Mon, 15 Jan 2018 13:47:32 +0000http://escunited.com/?p=31219I doubt that anyone saw all of this coming, but damn Norway! The 10 finalists have just been announced, and among them, we find some names which Eurovision fans should be very familiar with.

Norway has revealed the names that will take part in this years edition of Melodi Grand Prix 2018, which is the annual Norwegian national final, and so we shall take a look at the 10 names, that will fight for the Norwegian ticket to Lisbon, this upcoming May.

Eurovision Names In The Line-Up

Norway’s national final will take place on the 10th of March, and will feature quite a Eurovision line-up. Among the 10 finalists, many of them already have some sort of relation to the Eurovision Song Contest, some more than others, so we can only expect a tough competition.

The show will be hosted by Kåre Magnus Bergh and Silya Mymoen.

Charla K – Stop The Music

Born as Charlotte Kjær, she originated from Tønsbeg, but currently lives in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. In 2009 she took part in the Norwegian version of X Factor, as part of the group Shackles. The group took part in the Norwegian selection back in 2013, but was eliminated already in the semi-final.

Alejandro Fuentes – Tengo Otra

Born in Chile, but raised in Kristiansand, Norway. Alejandro will perform a Spanish love song. His career started back when he took part in Norwegian Idol, back in 2005. Since then, he’s had great success both as a solo artist and a part of the group De Nye Gitarkameratene.

Alexander Walmann – Talk To The Hand

Both young and old Eurovision fans should know this guy. Alexander Walmann was the vocal part of JOWST, who represented Norway at last year’s Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Grab The Moment”, which ended 10th in the Grand Final. Alexander originates from Porsgrunn, and started his career as a singer, back in 2012, when he finished as runner-up on The Voice Norway.

Stella and Alexandra – You Got Me

Next in the line-up, we find another former Eurovision artist. Stella represented Norway back in 2011, Düsseldorf, with the Swahili titled song “Haba Haba“, unfortunately she was eliminated during the 1st semi-final. She is now teaming up with Alexandra Rotan, who also have some Junior Eurovision experience, when she took part in MGP Junior back in 2010.

Vidar Villa – Moren Din

Vidar Villa originates from the capital of Norway, Oslo, and is considered to be a true hit maker. Majority of his songs tend to gather millions and millions of replays. His song “One Night Stand” was considered among the big summer hits in Norway last year, and the song awarded him a four time platinum award. His song, “Moren Din”(which translates into “Your Mom”), is about a guy falling in love with his friends mother.

Tom Huga – I Like I Like I Like

Full name, Tom Hugo Hermansen is from Kristiansand and is a singer-songwriter with international success, as well as success in Norway. He currently spends most of his time between Germany and Norway, as well as have written for multiple successful artists in both Germany and Japan. Tom returns to the MGP stage, after he took part back in 2013, with the song “Det Er Du“, where he didn’t manage to qualify to the final.

Ida Maria – Scandilove

Full name, Ida Maria Børli Sivertsen originates from Nesna. She is a well known artist and songwriter, when it comes genres such as punk and rock. She’s an established performer, as she has performed around the world, as well as made songs, that have been used in TV series in America. She wrote the song “Mama’s Boy”, which took part in last years MGP, performed by Ella.

Rebecca – Who We Are

Rebecca Thorsen, or simply just Rebecca, is the youngest participant in this years line-up. She originates from Oslo, and won the national music competition P3 Urørt, for young artists under the age of 16. Her song is written by Kjetil Mørland, who represented Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015, alongside Debrah Scarlett and the song “A Monster Like Me“, which finished 8th in the grand final.

Nicoline – Light Me Up

Nicoline Berg Kaasin, is a singer and dancer from Bærum, Norway. She became well known in Norway, after her participation in The Voice in 2015, where she reached the final. In 2016 she released her first single as well as taking part in the Norwegian television show Stjernekamp. This time, she will seek the chance to stand in front, as she was one of Margaret Berger’s backing vocalists back in 2013, Malmö.

Alexander Rybak – That’s How You Write A Song

Probably the most well known name of them all, then it comes to Eurovision, is Alexander Rybak, who not only represented Norway in 2009 with the song “Fairytale“, but also won the entire competition in Moscow, and brought the contest to Oslo in 2010. Rybak has since his Eurovision victory had great success in both Norway, as well in his native country Belarus, and has on multiple occasions tried to represent both countries as a songwriter.

With this very interesting line-up, are #YOU looking even more forward to Melodi Grand Prix 2018? As always, let us know!

]]>Let The Public Decide… Or Not?http://escunited.com/let-the-public-decide-or-not/
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 21:44:04 +0000http://escunited.com/?p=30867This editorial is written from the opinion of the author and does not represent the views of the other editors, the EBU or escYOUnited as a whole.

The trees are up, you’ve heard the same old songs one hundred times already and you’ve not even got to open THIS year’s pair of socks from some almost-forgotten aunt, yet the 2018 Eurovision National final season has begun this week! Albania has once again kicked things off, so we have the exciting prospect of our first entry being revealed as an early Christmas present. Of course, we already know six of the artists who will be competing in Lisbon, but none of their songs as yet. This leads us to an interesting question: Is it better to hold a national final, or just to select your artist and song internally?

In order to decide, let’s start by looking at the winners from the last decade and their selection methods: Portugal 2017 (national final), Ukraine 2016 (national final), Sweden 2015 (national final), Austria 2014 (internal selection), Denmark 2013 (national final), Sweden 2012 (national final), Azerbaijan 2011 (national final), Germany 2010 (national final), Norway 2009 (national final) and Russia 2008 (national final). Notice a theme here…? Almost makes you wonder why countries bother with internal selections when it comes to choosing an entry! Only once in the last ten years has a country managed to win without consulting its citizens on its choice of entry. Surely this answers our question immediately? Clearly, if you want to win, a national final is the only way to go to stand a real chance. However, there are a few other factors to consider. Firstly, and possibly most importantly, we need to look at how many entries each year were internal selections (as if there were very few, it’s quite easy to see why very few have won!). Also, is measuring success solely by victories a fair criterion?

Conchita Wurst; the only winner selected internally in the last decade (image from newnownext.com)

So how popular are national finals? Well, after a bit of research, it turns out that we have had (excluding any pre-qualifying entries, so no Big 5 or host countries) 231 national finals, 91 internal selections and 30 entries which were selected through a combination of the two (either a single artist national final, or where the song sung in a national final was not the one which went to Eurovision). So two and a half times as many national finals as internal selections; which is of course important! Little wonder that so many winners have come from national finals if there have been a lot of national finals! Having said, that this still means that a national final entry has a roughly 4% chance of winning whereas an internally selected entry has only a 1.1% chance. None of the 30 entries selected using a combination of selection methods won, so few conclusions can be drawn from that method here! But clearly, if you want to win the modern Eurovision, a national final is the way to go as it gives you a much higher chance of success, even taking into account the larger number of national final selections.

However, as I alluded to, is it really fair to only measure success by victories? After all, it gives us a very small sample size to study with only 10 winners a decade. Perhaps it is also worth looking at qualification rates to see if this throws up anything interesting. Well, it does! On average, over the last ten years, 56.4% of semi-finalists have qualified. Those selected via national finals? 56.3%. OK… So pretty much spot on there! Via internal selections? 54.9%. Hm, so lower, but nothing significant! Interestingly 20 out of the 30 selected via a combination of methods managed to qualify, so arguably if you want to qualify, combine the know-how of the TV executives and the tastes of the voting public and industry experts to produce a more likely qualifier! So, despite the dominance of national final winners when it comes to tasting Eurovision victory, it seems that when it comes to qualification, it makes no meaningful difference whatsoever!

Of course, when it comes to a Eurovision winner, or even a Eurovision qualifier, there are many factors to consider. Indeed, not every national final is the same, nor are the motivations for choosing an artist and entry internally always similar. Perhaps it is unfair to compare them given the massive differences? I would argue not, given the simple basic difference that national finals involve the public, whereas internal selections all happen behind closed doors. The very fact that 50% of the Eurovision vote is from the public surely shows that to be a real Eurovision success requires public input in the selection. There are a number of different ways of achieving this, however, so keep an eye out in the New Year when I will take a closer look at the different kinds of national finals to try and determine which work the best! Merry Christmas and welcome to Eurovision season 2018!

Are national finals really the best way to go, or are countries just getting their internal selections wrong? What do #YOU think? Share your thoughts with us below or on our forum!

Featured image courtesy of SVT

]]>Alexander Rybak Covers Amar Pelos Doishttp://escunited.com/alexander-rybak-covers-amar-pelos-dois/
Sun, 14 May 2017 16:44:42 +0000http://escunited.com/?p=30210The 2009 Eurovision Song Contest winner has provided us with a surprise today. He has covered the 2017 Eurovision winner “Amar Pelos Dois”, and rewritten the lyrics in English. Rybak pays tribute to the first ever Portuguese winner, Salvador Sobral and his sister Louisa who wrote the song.

Alexander Rybak won the Eurovision song contest for Norway in 2009 with his song “Fairytale”. He said that “I’ve made it out of love for the music, and I hope you’ll enjoy it”. So let’s take a listen to Rybak’s adaptation of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest winner!